The Curse of Speculation

No alcohol, no warrants, no criminal charges and no real explanation. That's where we find ourselves in the Tiger Woods accident saga. Not to be rude, but if this was a pop star of some sort who had seemingly just made a sober mistake here's what would have happened; the coverage would have been about thirty seconds on Friday morning on the local networks and the laugh-off public opinion that this pop star just isn't that bright. Tiger, however, is no dummy and up to this point doesn't make mistakes beyond missing a green from under a 100 yards.
It's the lack of a real explanation that has predictably fueled the media's speculative fire. I was watching The Sports Reporters on ESPN yesterday morning and the feeling I got from the panel was that until Tiger explained what happened in great detail everyone, including the panel, would assume the worst. Look, there's no crime here as far as we've been told so what's the big deal? So what if he got in a tiff with his wife? At least he decided to bolt rather than smack her around with his golf muscles right? I mean, he has flown off the handle before:

So what if he was going to pick up Steve Williams because the caddy was too drunk again and the bars closed at two? Lord knows Stevie has had a problem or two crashing cars:


So what if he was in too much of a hurry to get to Wal-Mart for amazing Black Friday deals? Leave Tiger Alone!

I joke because this is a joke. Ever think that maybe he hasn't yet spent the time with the police or released a detailed statement may have to do with the fact that this really isn't a big deal, just a dumb mistake? I made a mistake in a car once and hit a tree coming out of a friend's driveway because I let myself get distracted. It was the hardest thing I ever had to own up to because of the sheer stupidity of it. Priding yourself on doing everything right makes it harder to come clean about doing something so innocently dumb. Maybe I'm wrong and the roof is about to blow off the biggest sports conspiracy since the Black Sox. Maybe not.